BE IT KNOWN: I won’t scratch the surface of the subject today. It is covered well in various Systematic Theologies, Carl Henry’s God Revelation and Authority, and many other books. They all look to the Bible. Read!
One of the more contested aspects of God is his omniscience. The implications of an omniscient deity reach into all aspects of life and faith. The logical outworking of holding a high view of divine omniscience is married to a high view of God’s sovereignty. Most importantly, a high view of divine omniscience leads us to trust that God is firmly in control. What do I mean by omniscience? Omniscience is “God’s perfect and eternal knowledge of all things which are objects of knowledge, whether they are actual or possible, past, present or future” (A.H. Strong)
God’s knowledge is perfect and eternal.
God knows things perfectly. That is, there is nothing he does not know. There is no defect in his knowledge as he is the source of all truth. (Psalm 119:160, John 14:6, John 17:17) He is creator and ruler of all that is, thus it follows that he knows all there is to know about his creation. If he created all there is and knows it perfectly, there is no object of knowledge that is hidden to him. Again the scriptural support is plentiful. (Matt. 6:8, 32; 10:30; Luke 16:15, Acts 1:24, Romans 8:27, etc.) If something is knowable, God knows it.
Not only does God know everything perfectly, but he always has. (1 Cor. 2:7; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:4–5; 2 Tim. 1:9) Your decisions today are not new knowledge to God. He knew from before the foundation of all things. Before creation itself your days were known and numbered. There is not one single decision you can make that will surprise him. God does not sit idly by, wringing his hands, waiting for his creation to make up their minds on this or that. No. His knowledge is perfect and eternal.
God does not learn.
Why does this matter?
Omniscience, the knowledge of all things perfectly, eternally, and independent of any other thing is a central attribute of God. God must know all things to be God. Some teach that God merely knows the possible outcomes. This puts God at the mercy of his own creation. This philosophy leads to a god who is not sovereign over his own creation. He is much more human in that he can create life, like having a baby, and can do his best to train them but ultimately has no control over it.
God is not made in our image, however. We have knowledge, but it is imperfect, not eternal, and contingent. We know nothing from before our birth because we did not exist before our birth. God however is eternal and has always been. Our knowledge is imperfect as we are affected by sin. God is perfectly holy, unaffected by sin, and knows all things without the error of sin. I should clarify, even were we perfectly sinless we would not be omniscient. Our mind is not his. Our knowledge depends upon him. We are contingent on him. He is the source of all truth, as such all that we can know is first and eternally known by God. We do not know anything he does not as it is impossible for knowledge to exist apart from God.
God knows the beginning from the end. He has declared in his word how things began in Genesis, and how they will end in Revelation. If we do not think God both knows all things and is able to bring it about, why would we trust what he says?
If you don’t trust God to know and be able to bring about what he says, why do you pray to him? If you think God is powerless to affect change in the human heart, why do you pray for yourself or others? If you think he’s not aware of what is going on in the heart, again I ask, why pray?
God is totally knowledgeable of all things from the past, the present, and the future. He knows what will happen, not because he sees what decisions of man will be after he “cranked up the clock and let it go.” He knows it because he planned it. God is sovereign and we cannot dethrone him. His sovereignty is built upon his perfect, complete, and eternal knowledge. Do not despair, friend. Join the Psalmist in marveling at the majesty of God. Do not shrink from clearly revealed truth, embrace it, rejoice that God is in fact GOD!
Psalm 139:1–24 (ESV)
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
